7.30 a.m. – 4.00 p.m. Lessons “Girl Child Network pays for our school fees, uniforms, books, everything! Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to go to school. The first break is at 10 o’clock and we eat the lunch that our village mothers made for us the night before. If there’s time before classes start again, even if it’s only two minutes, I take the chance to play volleyball and games with my classmates! Not only the ones who live in the safe village, but everyone. And I get treated just like everyone else, which feels so good. I think it’s because all the girls are members of the Girl Child Network’s girls’ club at school. We meet every Wednesday and talk about girls’ rights and about things that can happen to girls. Everyone understands what happened to me and the other girls who live in the safe village.”
6.45 a.m. Singing our way to school “Once we have changed into our school uniforms, we walk to school together. It takes about 45 minutes. Often we talk and sing the whole way, to make the journey feel shorter!”
day in the safe village 5.00 p.m. Dinner “When we get home we change into other clothes and go to the cooking house, where the village mothers are waiting to serve dinner. All the food is good here, but my favourite dish is another kind of maize porridge called sadza and vegetables.” “One of our two village mothers is here around the clock. They are just like ordinary mothers who ask how our day was at school, and how we’re getting on and that sort of thing. The girls who live here are my sisters and we take care of each other. We are one big family. So even though my half-brother has been released from jail, I feel safe here,” says Tanaka.
Today, village mother Tagoma has made sadza with meat, vegetables and rice.
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